We’re in an age of Star Wars saturation. With each passing year, there are more entries in the franchise than ever, which is more and more of a mixed bag. Last year, one of the new entries was Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, a series of six shorts telling some of the back stories for Count Dooku and fan favorite Ahsoka Tano. The reception was mixed but enough to warrant a follow-up Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, which landed on May 4th on Disney+.
The backstories for Morgan Elsbeth and Bariss Offee
Tales of the Empire once again tells two stories in three parts each. The first chronicles Morgan Elsbeth (Dianna Lee Inosanto) from her beginnings as a Nightsister fighting against General Grievous’ droid army to where she was when we first met her in The Mandalorian. The second picks up the story of former Jedi apprentice Bariss Offee (Meredith Salenger), who fell to the dark side in The Clone Wars and follows her through the formation of the empire and potential recruitment to the Inquisitors, Darth Vader’s elite team of force-sensitive Jedi hunters.
Each story is told in three episodes, each approximately 15 minutes long. The length of these episodes is key; if they were any longer, there’d be too much opportunity for the story to meander. As told, each is concise and thematically to the point. These are the kinds of stories that short films can be great for.
One story is thoughtful and interesting and the other is just filler
In keeping with the franchise, Tales of the Empire is a mixed bag, albeit with a slightly more stark divide: one of these stories is thoughtful and interesting, and the other is just filler for the sake of filler.
This is the problem with Star Wars consistently feeling the need to make prequels and fill in its backstory. Morgan Elsbeth simply isn’t that interesting, and her story here does nothing to rectify that. Her first episode, The Path of Fear, is by far the best of her three, giving her character some context and motivation, while her latter two (The Path of Anger and The Path of Hate) simply move things around to make sure she is where she needs to be in time for The Mandalorian to meet her.
The latter story follows Barriss Offee’s journey post-Clone Wars, where the prisoner and former padawan is recruited by Fourth Sister, herself a former Jedi that Barriss clearly knew. There are appearances from The Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader, but these main two characters’ stories play out in parallel and opposition, forming an emotional core that is easy to relate to and echoes the good vs. evil, dark vs. light, and nature vs. nurture elements of the best entries in the series.
Photoreal animation in Tales of the Empire
Where the storytelling continues to be a mixed bag, the visuals are beyond reproach. Star Wars computer-animated series have long been at the forefront of technology and technique, and this series is no different. The movement, textures, and characters are unreal, but the animation looks as photoreal as it can be given this. There are shots of Fourth Sister, in particular, that look like a person in makeup rather than animation at first glance.
So, Tales of the Empire falls in line with the franchise as a whole: the good is good, and the rest is filler at best. Fortunately, this time, the good is indeed very good and definitely worth your time.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is now streaming on Disney+.
Learn more about the series, including how to watch, at the official website.
You might also like…
